In general, working in the Ds (lower right corner) assaulting toward the opponents' regions rather than toward AA, works best. clear the opponent from his Sdts and Koms and such before you 'breathe' - obviously this will take a few rounds, and in some of those rounds you may need to stack-only to have enough to go forward.

While you do this, also consider adding a troop here and there in the upper left corner (Das Schloss area) just in case your opponent is trying to stack there. Not to take, at least not at first, but as a little extra defense.

Once you have some of Ds secure, work to secure it all, so that the opponent MUST come from the troopers to get to you.

If you were successful at clearing the Ds area, you've got region count if not Ds bonus (probably both).

You can stack on Ds6 waiting for opponent assault; and even if you choose to stack on Ds6, I'd recommend holding some back here and there in the Ds line so that you're not a string of vulnerable-to-hot-dice singles. I try to have small stacks about every other Ds, but at the least I try to stack so that the opponent cannot bust the Ds lines to the point that he gets the bonus and I just lost it.

If in team games, I try to get two mates to have a Ds string.

****Now, what if your strength is mainly on the other side of Ds, the Ds12 and rightward line? Same strategy, just different stackpoints.

Here's the thing: if you can control the Ds area, you have better access to multi-reach Ds9 (ultimately; leave it neutral until you need it) which can reach flughafen area or Das Schloss area or AA/troopers area.

If you're successful in obtaining Ds area, you can then work on the Das Schloss area. If the opponent cleared you from there while you worked to clear Ds, now you're probably going to need Ds9 to go up the chute to Kontrol 1 and into Das Schloss, stacking Ds9 for your defense.... or for offense against the troopers autodeploys by taking AA and bombarding.

****Assuming you do have Ds area bonuses, work to control those troopers; still add here and there to what you have on Das Schloss but don't break through the neutrals until you're very strong. If the opponent broke them, obviously that's your focus before the troopers - unless he cleared you.

If he cleared you from Das Schloss, hitting the troopers to reduce his counts is worthwhile, so you have extra troops next round for your assaults.

rjhankey wrote:Thanks for sharing that insight -- my prior attempts I have focused on building in the lower right corner of the map ... I'm definitely going to be applying some changes in my strategy!

The problem with build-only strategies is that odds are whoever assaults the stack first will win. Odds doesn't mean it's guaranteed, it just means the assault has a better chance to work (odds/dice must be "with" you at the right time no matter what strategy you employ; no one wins by rolling all 1's .)

However, if you take a good look, what I recommend is essentially a "build in lower right corner" game to start. Perhaps the part you weren't doing was preparing defense in other areas to make it a little harder for opponents to take the Das Schloss area? Or were you building to assault AA without clearing the opponent from Ds first? Or were you concentrating so hard on stacking to keep Ds that you forgot about assaulting AA to bombard opponents' extra troops? Those are the basic questions when trying to decide, "okay, now what?"

I always built in the lower left corner in manual then I used AA to bombard my enemies. From there I stacked and kept bombarding. My enemy would waste all the resources trying to fight back and is usually located too far away like the top right or top left and then I just wait and I work my way up and take the objectives asap. But now I see that won't work anymore

jleonnn wrote:I always built in the lower left corner in manual then I used AA to bombard my enemies. From there I stacked and kept bombarding. My enemy would waste all the resources trying to fight back and is usually located too far away like the top right or top left and then I just wait and I work my way up and take the objectives asap. But now I see that won't work anymore

It can work; but it limits your ability to take region counts or bonuses. The lower right corner is the best opportunity to take region count, small bonuses, and reduce opponent regions. Upper left and right produce bigger bonuses, but require breaking through larger neutral stacks before you can reach opponents - which means they may survive to strike back (and they won't have to bust the neuts to do it.)

stahrgazer wrote:In general, working in the Ds (lower right corner) assaulting toward the opponents' regions rather than toward AA, works best. clear the opponent from his Sdts and Koms and such before you 'breathe' - obviously this will take a few rounds, and in some of those rounds you may need to stack-only to have enough to go forward.

While you do this, also consider adding a troop here and there in the upper left corner (Das Schloss area) just in case your opponent is trying to stack there. Not to take, at least not at first, but as a little extra defense.

Not a good idea if it's 1v1's you want to win! I win 80% of my 1v1's on Das Schloss and I love it when someone tries to use this strategy. I love it because then I know I'm going to win.

stahrgazer wrote:In general, working in the Ds (lower right corner) assaulting toward the opponents' regions rather than toward AA, works best. clear the opponent from his Sdts and Koms and such before you 'breathe' - obviously this will take a few rounds, and in some of those rounds you may need to stack-only to have enough to go forward.

While you do this, also consider adding a troop here and there in the upper left corner (Das Schloss area) just in case your opponent is trying to stack there. Not to take, at least not at first, but as a little extra defense.

Not a good idea if it's 1v1's you want to win! I win 80% of my 1v1's on Das Schloss and I love it when someone tries to use this strategy. I love it because then I know I'm going to win.

It really all depends on the settings. You can build in the bottom right if you hold a lot of the terts, but you'll need to still keep a presence in the top bonus areas. It all depends on the drop really.

Please don't invite me to any pickup games. I will decline the invite.

stahrgazer wrote:In general, working in the Ds (lower right corner) assaulting toward the opponents' regions rather than toward AA, works best. clear the opponent from his Sdts and Koms and such before you 'breathe' - obviously this will take a few rounds, and in some of those rounds you may need to stack-only to have enough to go forward.

While you do this, also consider adding a troop here and there in the upper left corner (Das Schloss area) just in case your opponent is trying to stack there. Not to take, at least not at first, but as a little extra defense.

Not a good idea if it's 1v1's you want to win! I win 80% of my 1v1's on Das Schloss and I love it when someone tries to use this strategy. I love it because then I know I'm going to win.

It really all depends on the settings. You can build in the bottom right if you hold a lot of the terts, but you'll need to still keep a presence in the top bonus areas. It all depends on the drop really.

Good point, my strategy wins me 80% of my games with sequential, automatic, chained, no spoils, fog of war. If you're playing freestyle, with spoils, unlimited reinforcements or no fog don't take my advice !

on a related note, how often does it happen that the player who is first forced to use his paratroopers still wins the game?

while it seems like a nice perk at first, i dont think a game has ever turned around after the first bunch of turns, establishing someone as the leader, and the other one as having to use his reinforcements first.

also, on what settings did that happen? i can imagine it going a little different on adjacent or unlimited:p

stahrgazer wrote:In general, working in the Ds (lower right corner) assaulting toward the opponents' regions rather than toward AA, works best. clear the opponent from his Sdts and Koms and such before you 'breathe' - obviously this will take a few rounds, and in some of those rounds you may need to stack-only to have enough to go forward.

While you do this, also consider adding a troop here and there in the upper left corner (Das Schloss area) just in case your opponent is trying to stack there. Not to take, at least not at first, but as a little extra defense.

Not a good idea if it's 1v1's you want to win! I win 80% of my 1v1's on Das Schloss and I love it when someone tries to use this strategy. I love it because then I know I'm going to win.

I've never had someone beat me when they deploy on the castle (Das Schloss) first and I've taken the DS area.

However, take note: I did say, put some defensive troops up there each round.

As for the last question, about using the paratroopers first? It's fine for quite a few rounds until cards (if escalating) or defensive stacks build up enough to make taking the 5 neuts off worthwhile. But, if you leave your vulnerable troopers at singles when you fort forward, you do make it too easy to bombard them; so leave singles with caution. Or, have a big stack left on the non-vulnerable trooper to swarm forward and use, "i'll be bombed to singles this round," as part of your strategy.

TheRedSnifit wrote:Does anybody have advice for when you use escalating spoils and people start trading cards for 200 troops?

Spread your troops out so it's harder to be eliminated. They will try to attack through Landeplatz A or B (which each have 14 neutral) to Hubschrauber A or B (which each have 60 neutral) in order to bombard your parachutes (Casey, Jones, Mills, etc). Once they are able to do that, they will also take AA and bombard the two locations next to the parachutes from there (C1, C2, etc). So, if you aren't in position to be the one doing that, you need to spread a couple of big stacks around to make it harder to be eliminated.

jleonnn wrote:On 1v1, would manual make a big difference in gameplay? Would you still go for the same areas (ie. still going for the south-east corner)

I think that manual would make a difference. Especially if you're playing against someone who doesn't know the map well. It give you a lot more options to start from quickly.

So how would you play it if it were manual then? I always play this map on manual and always go for the white area and try to hold it, building stacks and bombarding through AA. Then I go for the objectives. I would like to know if there's a flaw in this strategy if playing manual and I have been winning through sheer luck Thanks in advance.

I think that there are probably a couple of ways you could play it... Really 1v1 is a bit different than other game styles. That's especially true if it's unlimited fortifications.. But, if it's chained and not trench, I think you can try your way of bombarding from AA or get a bonus in one of the top regions. I would prefer to not go through AA myself unless it's unlimited and you can build a giant stack very quickly before going.

I think that there are probably a couple of ways you could play it... Really 1v1 is a bit different than other game styles. That's especially true if it's unlimited fortifications.. But, if it's chained and not trench, I think you can try your way of bombarding from AA or get a bonus in one of the top regions. I would prefer to not go through AA myself unless it's unlimited and you can build a giant stack very quickly before going.

By white area I meant Das Dorf. I usually play 1v1 unlimited forts no trench. And when I do, I rarely go for the top 2 bonuses; like I said I focus on Das Dorf. What do you think?